Seydon of Arda
Raquor'daan
Image Source: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Developed & Produced by Konami & Platinum Games
Intent: A working 'Proof of Concept' cyborg battle chassis, to give Arto mobility, speed, power, and ability.
Development Thread: Suit Up
Manufacturer: iBorg Prosthetic Augments : TransHominid Developments R&D Division
Model: iBorg J8M 'Autumn Water'
Affiliation: iBorg/Personal
Modularity: Partial Modularity : Limited to compact hardware electronics. In example: in IRL computer maintenance, circuit boards can be replaced and interchanged. It's akin to replacing a CPU chip with either a replacement or a newer version. Limited to bettering software functionality and some hardware performance, mostly with processing speeds for sensor and HUD application.
Production: Unique
Material: Duraplast, Quantum Fibre, Servomotor Actuators, CNT Muscle Fiber, Titanium Skeletal Structure, Darwikian Climber Pads, Synth-Homeostatic Artificial Organ System
Classification: Light-Medium Close Quarters Combat Chassis
Weight: 90.7 kg's (Reasoning: Being a full body unit, not simply plate, ergo it mimics human dimensions and weight load.)
Quality: 4.5
Special Features:
Duraplast: A widely used carbon-based plating, chosen for its katarn-like durability in the face of small to medium arms fire, alongside reinforcement to resist EMP and ion weaponry discharges.
Quantum Fibre: A component of laminanium but deconstructed for usage as a fiber armourweave suit sheathe, to lend additional protection under the Duraplast plate. (Note: By itself, quantum fiber does not confer any of the self-reforming capabilities of laminanium and is not intended to subvert any Factory limitations.)
Servomotor Actuators: Common to both droid and amputation prosthesis. These mechanisms allow the chassis to mimic humanoid body mechanics, including a sense of balance equilibrium.
CNT Muscle Fibre: A by-product development with borrowed strength enhancement technology from the tested and proven iBorg Nyax Arm-Cannon. Featuring an enhancement ratio of 2x-4x. (Note: The iBorg J8M chassis does not possess any built-in ranged weaponry.)
Titanium Skeletal Structure: A mechano-musculoskeletal feature meant to mimic the humanoid bone structure of a human male. While not as strong as steel and durasteel derivatives, titanium still boasts a higher ratio of high strength and low weight, alongside resistance to corrosive elements such as acids, alkali elements, natural water minerals, and common chemicals used in industrial processes. (Note: The titanium structure will eventually need to see servicing as it does not boast the fatigue limits carried by steel. For other reference, please see: LINK )
Darwikian Climber Pads: Adopted from civilian climbing pads originating out of the Darwiki system, fitted onto the suit's hand palms and foot soles. They provide enhanced gripping, aiding in urban and rural scaling challenges and structure infiltration.
Synth-Homeostatic Artificial Organ System: Ideally, the chassis pilot is an attached brain with a preserved spinal cord. However, such complex neural organs still require several bodily systems in order to function properly, including oxygenation and glucose. To that end, the chassis body is installed with a limited set of synth-cloned organs to that end. An artificial blood flow helps regulate the system alongside communication between various sets of internal hardware. (Note: Modelled on the work provided by BioTech Industries in their Repli-Limb Prosthetic Replacements, which included organ replacement. Please see the above link or here: LINK )
Force-Sensory Feedback: Despite it's name, it has little at all to do with eldritch powers. The FSF is a sensory feedback feature that links sensation back to the brain's somatosensory system, giving the cyborg wearer a phantom impression of familiar, homoeopathic motion, control, and sensorial interaction, helping to lessen the strain of chassis operation on the cyborg's psyche. To anyone linked to the FSF, it's an impression of heat and sinew teased into the mind.
Spark of iBorg: A reference to the iBorg product, though the chassis doesn't feature Aurek or Zerek node implants. Rather, to help protect the onboard software from suffering havoc incurred by an unkind slicer, the J8M chassis features a wealth of prescribed and powerful data firewalls and slicing countermeasures, able to manually trip a hard break that shuts and closes the datalink until the chassis can be brought back for thorough 'scrubbing'.
General Features:
Naval Grade HUD
Sonic Dampeners
Multi-Frequency Targeting & Acquisition System
Macrobinocular Imaging
Sensor/Scanner Suite
Onboard, Solid-State Petabyte Memory Cache
Patented iBorg Operating Systems
Eye-Piece Camera w/Transmitter-Recorder
Rebreather Filtration
Installed Commlink/Uplink Suite w/ Encryption
Diagnostic Port Link
Computer Console Linkage Cable
Integrated MP6 Player W/ Annunciator
Slight Autumn Rain Fragrance
Description:
The J8M began life as professorial hobby, recycling as an idea to cybernetic prosthetic technician and bio-synth futurist doctor Lange Jacques. A mercenary officer previously, Dr. Jacques spent considerable years ranging between fighting companies, contracted out to battle what had then been a scourge of raids emerging from Bando Gora territories. Amputations were solved with ad-hoc mechanical replacements that required more maintenance than actual flesh and blood injuries. Burn outs from over-use of third-rate augment cybernetics were common and resulted in such impaired function and lasting brain damage, that suicide rates of veterans were often appallingly high.
Infirmities that came with progressing age drummed Jacques out of service, giving him an excuse to return to teaching as he circuited various universitariats across the Mid to Inner Rim worlds. His memories of the Bando Gora, the short comings of flesh that couldn't keep up with combat demands, and the lameness of survivors that couldn't adapt to prosthetic life, shaped several of his more notable papers and formed the bedrock of his theory regarding the proliferation of cybernetics to virtually every part of future life. At least in affluent sectors.
Initial J8M Concept Sketches, depicting helmet facial plating. Art by Dr. Lange Jacques.
The plight of humanoids and xeno-forms serving in various military function never left Jacques. Connected to various labs through contacts and friends, he compiled material lists and conceptual patents that were, in the day, either just a concept or in nascent development. His ideal was of near total cyberization: subtracting a brain and spinal cord, and fitting them into a waiting chassis that would respond, without latency, to conscious and automatic neural command. A lean, strong, agile body, able to carry a fighter quickly through an engagement, utilizing superior strength and reflexes in conjunction with inter-linked tactics to crush a given enemy.
It remained an on-off project, refined as years passed before eventually being filed into his personal affects. Jacques returned to his teaching posts, unable to shop his ideas to any wanting technology or development firms. The J8M would remain mothballed in his records. Until, chancing a conversation with young pre-graduate Keta Veeve sparked conversation. She was signed to work with industry newcomer iBord Prosthetic Augments, having been scouted for her work in transhominid mobility and ideas for the use of CNT fibre in conjunction with joint servo-actuators. He passed along the nascent schematics of the J8M to her, in the hopes that it would either see cannibalization into further products or an actual, working prototype.
Further concept sketches, by Dr. Jacques. Unknown designation 'Ninja'.
Assigned to the TransHominid Developments R&D Division, Dr. Veeve argued for the prospects of a working J8M line. Expenses incurred in its prototype production and the need for active VR simulations frustrated her continually. Atop worries over cost, more senior team leaders argued that she would never discover an able volunteer that would be able to showcase the chassis' potential to its fullest. The project would be put on hold weeks later in the light of an insider business spy, whose datamining efforts and secreted file copies would put him up for early retirement if properly sold to any of iBorg's market competitors.
Enter Arto Kool. A strange bounty hunter with a predilection of close quarters fighting and stunningly good firearm skill. Contracted out to the spy's bounty, Arto pursued him through the Corporate Sector, backed up an analysis team composed of Dr. Veeve herself. When finally cornering the leak, the moment rose out of hand and any outside control. Allied with mysterious agents boasting powerful cybernetics, accompanied by what appeared to be an unidentified FU, Arto battled for his life. The spy escaped, and Arto was mauled, despite slaying over a dozen with just a heavy pistol and vibro-knife. Despite the turnaround, Dr. Veeve managed to capitalize on the moment. She had found their needed volunteer.
The bounty hunter's remains were recovered, laboriously revived, and then subjected to surgeries extracting his skull and the length of his spine. Arto was eventually awoken in a cultivated virtual-reality environ, approached by members of the transhominid staff. His options were three fold: accepting death through assisted suicide, retiring from bounty work into the confines of a sub-par vital-support unit, or conversion to cyberization and accepting several contracts that would bind his assets to the iBorg brand and its own considerable resources. Reborn as a working, fighting man, with granted autonomy and increased fighting ability. Motivated by his own wants, Arto Kool accepted their more-or-less iron-clad offer. Further engineering or rather, re-engineering was contracted out to several outfits belonging under the awning of the Saiba Group. Notably, under the aegis guidance of Dr. Faust Bereguson, with direct supervision from iBorg company director Selka Ventus in cooperation with her own accomplished engineering corp, replying to the conundrum posed by strength-to-mass ratios.
Strengths:
Strength, Speed, Power: The J8M offers impressively maximized physical ability, boasting a 2-4x strength enhancement with increased speed, agility, and reaction times. Formed to create an agile, powerful close combatant that can be at home manoeuvring virtually any environment.
Durable Battery Life: But the chassis is no good if it can't stay propped up under damages. To that end, its sheathed in duraplast plate and armour, fitted over further quantum fibre weaving, offering protection against small arms and light SMG's to lesser yield fragmentation grenades and ion weaponry. On top of that, compared to the fatigues and injuries that would be debilitating to ordinary humanoid flesh, the J8M is extraordinarily resilient, able to absorb certain damage percentages before the battle has to be vacated for repairs.
Weaknesses:
Limited Casement: In exchange for agility, the J8M's armouring is sacrificed. It cannot withstand the sort of firepower levelled by the likes an E-Web turret or heavy blaster or LMG carbines, to say nothing of what would happen if it were caught in a thermal detonator blast range.
The Feedback Edge: That said, the J8M runs at optimum when all included systems are functioning at optimum. If wounds and mutilation sustained on the chassis compound, there is a rising probability of overwhelming the chassis' redundant safeguards, resulting in unfiltered feedback striking horrendous pain into the attached neural-organics.
Hands On: It should also be mentioned the chassis cannot be remotely piloted, unless a droid-brain or another prepared cyborg fighter is fitted into the linkage sockets and ports.
The Kyberneticke Heel: Following that last idea, if any of the still fleshly parts that constitute the 'driver' are damaged, then the J8M is rendered inoperable. Brain damage or catastrophic, fatal injury to the spine or skull will cause the chassis to cease operation entirely, becoming a dead weight feature lying helpless on the ground.
Empty Ballasts: As of its current iteration, the J8M lacks any buoyancy measures to allow the chassis to stay afloat or swim, or spare oxygen tanks outside of anything mounted outside on the armour skin, such as scuba gear, floatation vest, and/or swimfins. Though insulated and measures like hydrophobic coatings exist, if the J8M strikes a body of water, all ninety kilograms are going to sink, and do so rapidly.
Primary Source: (Partial Credit to Arbiter Combat Helmet for help with General Features, alongside the iBorg Spark and Nyax Arm-Cannon for further information.)
